ore Such was also that lamentable attempt of Tresham upon his death-bed to excuse Garnet wherein he was disproved by the Confessions both of Mrs Vaux Garnets intimite and of Garnet himself To these may be added Their Design to have father'd the enterprise upon the Puritans and since Their impudent groundless Imputation of the Original of it to Cecil which makes the relation of that design more credible and that again makes this imputation more apparently void of Credit 19. Now of these Observations of their Secrecy and Practise we may reasonably make this Vse 1. To manifest the validity and Sufficiency of these and such like Arguments and Proofs from Circumstances and by way of Inducement in this case For where such Works of Darkness as to the main substance of them are plainly and sully proved and as plainly and evidently proved to have been managed with so much Secrecy and Practise we cannot reasonably expect greater Proof and Evidence of any Circumstance belonging to them than so plain a concurrence and agreement of all other Circumstances with it 2. To manifest the Insufficiency of what ever should be urged from their Confessions against us For since they did not only stifly deny plain truths but also must impudently affirm manifest falshoods especially where it was thought necessary for excusing any of the Society what ever shall be alledged from their speeches for that purpose may reasonably be suspected to have been fained and devised for that end and deserves no credit at all 3. To Answer the Objection that might be made and Correct the Mistake that hath been committed concerning the first Author and Original of the Plot as if it was at first of Catesby's Contrivance and not till their Despair of Assistance from Spain upon their last Negotiation there 20. To which it might be Answered from their Practise to excuse their Complices especially the Jesuits that they attributed the Contrivance to Catesby because he being dead could accuse no other and assigned That Time as being a good probable Occasion of it But 2. It may be Answered perhaps more satisfactorily and fully From their Secrecy and from Catesby's own words that some might be willing to be known to him who would not be known to the rest to be privy and the rather because this was an old policy formerly practised in order to the Spanish Invasion which was after attempted in 88. when many were so cunningly engaged that they knew not of and so were not able to accuse any but the person that ingaged them as Sir Francis Bacon in his Observations upon the Libel published 1592. and in his Collection of the Felicities of Queen Elizabeth shews from a Letter of one of their Principal Heads which was intercepted and not only practised before but also repeated immediatly after this Plot when Five had severally undertaken the Earl of Salisbury's death and vowed the performance of it and yet it was so ordered that none of those Five knew who the other Four were for the better preventing the discovery of the rest if any one by attempting and not performing should be apprehended from hence it may well be answered That it is very probable that Winter and Fawkes from whose Confessions this mistake hath arisen and the Objection may be made and most of the other Conspirators did indeed know of no other Author of the Contrivance but Catesby And yet it may very well be that He received it from others the first Contrivers of it either immediately or mediately either the full Project expresly with the Reasons mentioned by Thuanus under some Oath of Secrecy or Engagement not to discover from whom he received it or at least some such Hints and Intimations of it as were sufficient to set on work a mind so active and well disposed to improve the same to the utmost and without any such engagement he might be apt enough to take the Invention upon himself not only out of Devotion to the Society whose reputation he might thereby the better secure in case it should miscarry but even out of an Ambition to be reputed the Author of so Glorious an Enterprise And that He should be intrusted with so Great a Secret and the Chief visible Management of it rather than any of the rest was very likely 1. Because he and his Family had been addicted and devoted to the Jesuits from their very first coming into England and were harbourers of Campian who with his Comrade Parsons the two first and principal who were designed and employed for that Service came into England Anno 1580. where he was apprehended 22. July in the year next ensuing as we are informed by Sanders 3. de Schismate Anglicano From which time it is not unlikely that he held correspondence with F. Parsons who soon after returned to Rome and continued there Rector of the English Colledge till some years after the discovery of this plot he was shamefully turned out of Rome by Mounsieur Bethunes the French Embassadour and Order from the King of France being discovered to plot a new treason against his Majesty to introduce the Duke of Parma as we are told by a Romanist But 2. this was not all why Catesby was preferred before the rest in this service for in this respect Tresham might perhaps have claimed that honor as well as he as we may see in Sanders but Catesby had another more special qualification as being more Cautious and Cunning as we may observe in Thuanus 21. But because so plausible a Pretense for the Occasion of these desperate resolutions at that time as the King of Spain's then deserting of the Conspirators upon his Treaty of Peace with England may seem to have some weight in it though it must be noted that this seemes rather to have been the Conjecture of the Historians and others than that any such thing was expresly alledged by the Conspirators for ought appears in the Printed Confessions of Fawkes and Winter yet that we may leave no scruple and make it further appear that we have not only the concurrence of all Circumstances to confirm our belief of the truth of what hath been said but have also sufficient matter and ground for Answer to all Objections we shall return such Answer though touch'd before as may both sufficiently solve this doubt and be of some use to other purpose And therefore it must be remembred 1. That all the neighbouring Popish Princes especially France Spain and the Archdukes of Austria toward the latter end of the Queens Reign were not a little concerned upon Fear of what Consequence the Vnion of the three Kingdoms viz. of Scotland with England and Ireland might prove in time as is not only apparent in it self but intimated to us by the Papists themselves in their Supplication to King James before the discovery of this plot and thereupon bent all their Consultations and used all Means to prevent or hinder it as well after the Kings coming in as
wherein he was taken But now their preparations being in good forwardness as well for the assault from abroad by their Navy and Army as for their reception and admission here by their party prepared by their Agents the Emissaries the better to disguise the business and to make the Queen and her Counsel the more secure Camb. an 1586 they not only publish a Book wherein the Papists in England are admonished not to attempt any thing against their Prince but to fight only with the weapons of Christians Tears Spiritual Arguments Sedulous Prayers Watchings Fasting Thu. lib. 89. Canrd an 1588 but also a Treaty of Peace is earnestly sollicited by the Duke of Parma with Authority from the King of Spain which though not soon yielded to by the Queen who suspected some fraud or deceitful design in it yet being at last obtained is kept on foot till the engagement of both fleets break it off in the famous year of 88. At which time all the preparations being fully compleated for execution the Pope who had before promised the assistance of his Treasure begins first to thunder out his Bull Which with a book written by Doctor Allen is printed at Antwerp in English in great numbers to be sent over into England in which book for the greater terrour of the people are particularly related their vast preparations which were so great that the Spaniards themselves being in admiration of them named it the Invincible Armado and the Nobility Gentry and people of England and Ireland are exhorted to joyn themselves with the Spanish Forces under the conduct of the Dake of Parma for the Execution of the Popes Sentence against Elizabeth With this Bull is Dr. Allen being extraordinarily †Thu. l. ◠out of the time allowed by the Canons even of this Pope made Cardinal of purpose for this exploit sent into Flanders to be ready * Thu. l. 89. upon the Spaniards Landing Some such Officer we may suppose was intrusted with the three Breves which were in like manner seur to be in readiness to be sent over and published in the Popes name in three principal places of this Kingdom as soon as the Powder-plot was discharged and had done its execution as Bishop Andrews reports from the Spontaneous confession of a Jesuit at the time of his writing who was then here in prison Respons ad Apol. Bellarm. cap. 5. pag. 113. to pass over into England as the Popes Legate cum plena potestate and here to publish the Bull In which Bull the Pope by the power which he saith is from God by the Lawful succession of the Catholick Church deseended to him over All persons for several causes there in specified and more fully expressed in the Bulls of Pius v. and Gregory XIII doth again proscribe the Queen Takes away all her Royal Dignity Titles and Rights to the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Declaring her Illegitimate and a Usurper of those Kingdoms Absolving her Subjects from their Oath of Faith and Obedience to her Threatens All of what condition soever under danger of the wrath of God not to assist her in any wise after notice of this Mandate but to imploy all their power to bring her to Condigne punishment Commands All Inhabitants of those Kingdoms diligently to execute these Mandates and as soon as they have certain notice of the Spaniards coming to joyn all their forces with them and in all things be obedient to Parma the King of Spain's General and lastly Proposing Ample Reward to those who shall lay hands upon the proscribed Woman and deliver her to the Catholick party to be punished in conclusion out of the Treasury of the Church committed to his Trust and Dispensation he draws out his treasure and Grants a Full Pardon of All their Sins to All those who should engage in this expedition This Thuanus relates more at large and presently adds It was agreed in secret that King Philip should hold the Kingdom when reduced to the Obedience of the Church of the Pope in Fee as of the Holy See according to the Articles of the contract by Ina Henry 2. and King John made and renewed with the Title of Defender of the Faith And to reduce it to this Obedience these were the forrein Preparations which were made according to Thuanus his Account A Navy of 150. * Of vast burden says Cicarella besides an infinite number of small ships In vita Sixti v. Ships extraordinarily well furnished and in it of Mariners and Seamen 8000. Gally-slaves a great number 2080. says Camden of Souldiers 20000. besides Gentlemen and Voluntiers for scarce was there any family of note in Spain which had not son or brother or cousin in that fleet Brass Guns 1600. Iron Guns 1050. Of Powder Bullet Lead Match Muskets Pikes Spears and such like weapons with other instruments and engines great abundance as also of Horses and Mules and Provisions for six moneths And that nothing might be wanting as to matters of Religion they brought along with them the Vicar General of the Sacred Office as they call it that is the Inquisition and with him of Capucines Jesuites and Mendicants above 100. And besides all these were prepared in Flanders and those parts by the Duke of Parma of Flat-bottomed Boats for transportation of men and Horse and other necessaries 288. of Vessels for Bridges fitted with all things necessary 800. and of Armed men 20900. 50000 Veterane Souldiers says Sir Fr. Bacon But all these preparations and forces were not greater than was the Spaniards expectation and confidence of an assured Victory and Absolute Conquest of this Kingdom and that not only in respect of the strength and greatness of their Forces though so great that in admiration of this Navy they named it as hath been said The Invincible Armado and so was it called in a Spanish ostentation throughout Europe and hath indeed been thought the greatest Navy that till that time ever swam upon the Sea though not for number yet for Bulk and Building of the Ships with the Furniture of great Ordnance and Provisions But that which very much heightened their Confidence was the supposed Goodness of their Cause and presumption of the Divine assistance accordingly favouring them in it and thereby signally ratifying the Sentence of Christs Vicar this being assigned as an Apostolical Mission against the Incorrigible and Excommunicate Hereticks to reduce them to the Obedience of the Catholick Church of Rome and to execute his Holines's Sentence of Excommunication against that accursed Anathematized woman though this that we may note it by the way was properly and anciently reputed the Office only of Satan and his Angels and Ministers and never taken out of their hands till Pope Gregory VII after above a thousand years exercise of it by the Plenitude of his Power took upon him to dispose as it seems of the Kingdom of Darkness as well as of the Empires and Kingdoms of the Earth But
Collection of her Felicities while her Neighbours who wickedly and barbarously persecuted the Professors of that Reformed Religion for their Religion sake which she with great and Christian Moderation towards the adversaries of it happily established and defended either lived not out half their days or died violent deaths and were murthered by their own Subjects of the same Religion with themselves or were otherwise unhappy in their attempts in that Eminently Remarkable manner as is so far from being impertinent to our subject and design briefly to note that it would be a great fault and unworthy neglect not to do it Certainly who ever shall impartially and without prejudice consider the History of this blessed and happy Queen and with it compare the History of the Times both precedent and subsequent to her reign and especially of her neighbours in France durng her own times must needs acknowledge not only an Admirable Providence over Her in both Preserving and Blessing her in all her Affairs but a Special Distinguishing Providence thus favouring her and at the same time in a very remarkable manner disâ—favouring Crossing Blasting and Severely Punishing and Revenging the disferent and contrary Courses and Practises of her Neighbours and others 38. We might here remember the Story of Don Sebastian King of Portugal who in the heat of his youth and devotion to the See of Rome had tendered his service to the Pope and engaged in an Expedition against England and Ireland but having raised a great Army and prepared a great Fleet was by the King of Fosse prevailed with to assist him in the recovery of his Kingdom in Mauritania Where with Stukely who commanded the Italian Forces raised by the Pope and King of Spain for the service against Ireland whom he perswaded to go with him first to the African war he was slain dyed without issue and left his Kingdom a prey to the Spaniard whereby not only the present storm which threatned the Queen was blown over but the Spaniard also for divers years diverted by his wars with Portugal from molesting the Queen in that manner which otherwise 't is likely he would have done and from some such Invasion as though then intended was not actually undertaken till ten years after We might here also remember Don John of Austria in the heat of his eager designs upon England cut off by the Plague in the flower of his age Thuan. if his heart was not broken as was thought Raleigh by the disappointment of his ambitious designs after he had fouly by the Popes Dispensation falsified his Oath taken to observe the Treaty made with the States General And we might here likewise take notice not only of what some may think observable in the Death of the King of Spain Thu. l. 120. if not devoured yet in a great measure wasted and consumed by Lyce bred in his own body which in so great quantities issued out of four several tumours in his breast as that it was as much as two men by turns could do to wipe them off from him with napkins and cloathes but of that which others may think more remarkable in his Life which is that having twice most solemnly Sworn to the States General of the Low-Countries over which he held only a kind of Seigniory to Maintain their Ancient Rights Raleigh Priviledges and Customes which they had enjoyed under their thirty and five Earls before him and afterwards obtained from the Pope a Dispensation of his Oathes which Dispensation says Sir Walter Rawleigh was the true cause of the war and Blood-shed since when he sought contrary to his Oathes and all Right and Justice not only by new devised and intolerable Impositions to tread their National and Fundamental Laws Priviledges and Ancient Rights under his feet and both by Arts dividing their Nobility and by Force to enslave their Persons and Estates and make himself Absolute but moreover by introducing among them the Exercise of the Spanish Inquisition to Tyrannize also over their Consciences and in pursuance hereof had committed many barbarous Murders and Massacres among them by the Just Providence of God he was thrown out of all and those Rights and Priviledges which he sought to abolish and that Religion which he sought to oppress were by that people retained and enjoyed with greater freedom and liberty than ever so that in conclusion the recompense of that oppression and cruelty which he exercised upon them was the loss of those Countries which says Raleigh for beauty gave place to none and for revenue did equal his West-Indies besides the loss of an hundred millions of money and of the lives of above four hundred thousand Christians by him cast away in his endeavours to enslave them If besides this we reflect upon his many and various attempts against the Queen of England Thu. l. 120. some of them with so great study and vast expense of his Treasure his unhappy Wars in aid of the Rebels in France which his ambitious hopes had no less devoured than they had England all of them unsuccessful and remarkably blasted and himself at last so weary of them that he was glad to desire peace with both his fruitless wasting of 5594. Myriads of Gold as himself confessed without any other profit than the acquest of Portugal which he thought might be as easily lost as his hopes of the Kingdom of France had suddenly vanished and however was sufficiently ballanced with his loss in Africa and elsewhere the death of his eldest son by his own command as the lesuite * 9. Ration Temp. 12. Petavius saith expresly and the less of all his other sons save only Phil. 111. who succeeded him and was the only son of all his four wives who survived him If we seriously I say reflect upon all these we may look upon the prolongation of his life in respect of himself but as a continuance of trouble and misery to him and in respect of this blessed Queen to have been designed by God for an Exercise of her Faith and Virtue and a necessary means to render his Favour and never failing Providence over her the more Manifest Conspicuous and Exemplary to encourage others to Fidelity to him and Resignation to his most Wise Powerful and Gracious Providence But though these things do well deserve our notice yet that which I call a Distinguishing Providence is yet more admirable and remarkable in her nearer neighbours in France 39. When Queen Elizabeth began her Reign in England Henry 11. was King of France His Father Francis 1. who in the beginning of his Reign which was about the time of Luthers first appearing against Indulgences had unhappily entred into a league with the Pope Leo x. which in the judgment of many says Thuanus brought destruction upon his affairs and family though in many things unhappy throughout his whole Reign yet certainly was he in nothing more unhappy than in the guilt of so much innocent blood as
p. 763. And indeed after this Declaration to use Davila's words the people as it were loosened from the bonds of obedience and having broken the rein of modesty ran violently to the breaking down of the King's Arms and Statues where ever they found them and began furiously to seek out all those whom they accounted dependants of his party by them called Navarrists and Politicks which forced many quiet men to leave their houses to save their lives which others were fain to compound for with money V. Thu. p. 397. and others unfortunately lost All Churches eccho'd with voices of the Preachers who aggravated the particide committed by * Hence Charles Steward here Henry Valois no longer called King of France but the Heretick Tyrant and persecuter of the holy Church and all places were full of Libels both in verse and prose which contained and amplified the same things several ways And the Council of sixteen having prepared the Preachers to be ready in case any tumult should arise to appease the people cause all the Counsellors of Parliament and Officers who adhered to the King to be imprisoned in the Bastille as enemies to the publick good This done they assemble a kind of Rump Parliament which substituting others in the place of those they had secluded make a publick Declaration for the deposing of the King and a new Decree and Engagement of holy Vnion for defence of the Catholick Religion the safety of Paris and other united Cities to oppose those who having violated the publick Faith had taken away the lives of the Catholick Princes to take just revenge for their marther and to defend the liberty and dignity of the States of France against all persons whoever without exception c. And this was proposed to be sworn to by all whereupon there was presently a general engagement throughout the whole Kingdom and for a Head of the Vnion they make choice of the D. of Mayenne Brother to the late D. of Guise who at the request of the Leaguers comes to Paris where a Council of the Vnion consisting of 40 of the chief Leaguers whose Orders all are to obey upon pain of death being instituted he is by the Parliament declared Lieutenant-General of the State and Crown of France and solemnly sworn to defend the Roman Catholick Apostolick Religion the Royal State the Authority of the Supreme Courts the priviledges of the Church and of the Nobility the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom c. In the mean time to heighten and inflame the odium of the people against the King nothing is omitted either in the Pulpit or out of it by slanders calumnies and false reports And while among other devises they endeavour to represent him as a worshipper of Satyrs and a Magitian they exercise a kind of magick or witchcraft against him devising religious execrations and instituting strange superstitious rites women and maids clad only in such fine linen that their bodies might be seen through it and some carrying burning tapers in their hands they sang over certain mysterious rithms with dissonant and confused tones and voices and then suddenly extinguished their torches as if they hoped or wished that the King's life should be thereby or in like manner also extinguished and a great deal such stuff too long to be here related By these means were the people every where incensed and enraged against the King but especially by the new Doctrines of the Preachers and Confessions were the minds of men generally so perverted that they made it almost a sport to break Faith with him and betray their trust and many thought it their duty so that the Cities daily revolted from his obedience Thu. l. 94. sin At Bourdeaux the J suites for a conspiracy and tumult raised there were by the President of the Province expelled the City to prevent the like for the future And when from thence they repaired for refuge to Agen and * Vesuna Paetrocariorum Vesuna those Cities thereupon presently rebelled But the greatest fury and rage of the people was at Tholouse stirred up as was believed by these new Theologists While the Leaguers are thus busy both at home and abroad Thu. l. 95. prâ— Thu. l. 94. the King is not idle but treats with his Neighbour Princes and States for men and money and to mitigate the fury of his own people with great importunity and submission solicits for absolution for killing the Cardinal from the Pope who was highly enraged against him for that sacrilegious act as he pretended but probably more for killing the Duke if that be true which the State of Venice and the Dukes of Tuscany and Mantua certified the King that the Pope and the Duke had agreed in secret to marry the Pope's Niece to Prince Jonvil the Duke's Son and to depose the King thrust him into a Monastery and make the Duke King in his place His Ambassador going about this affair to Rome was by the way admonished by the Duke of Tuscany that the King should do well to trust more to his own forces and strength at home than to the Pope's favour for if things succeedeed well with him in the beginning of those commotions in France he should have friends enough at Rome and among them the Pope himself but if otherwise he should find them his bitter enemies And so it proved for when this proud and insolent Pope to gratifie his own pride and ambition and magnify his authority in the opinion of the people had drawn on the King and his Ministers to do all acts of submission and base prostration to him as far as he could he turned him off at last without any absolution and not not long after began to proceed to Excommunication against him Wherefore the King when he could obtain no favour from the Pope Thu. l. 95. treats more openly with the King of Navar and concludes an agreement with him to the no little joy of all sober men who thought there was no such way for setling that Kingdom as by this reconciliation of the King of France with Navar the first Prince of the Bloud the next Heir of the Crown and an excellent General and Commander Had he done this at first rather than so basely and foully broak his Faith he had certainly by God's blesting which he might then with more reason have expected prevented the growth of this faction of the League to this height and most of this trouble to himself and his Kingdoms But this now afforded new matter for the Preachers and Writers to exasperate the minds of the people withal And the Pulpits ring and the Presses sweat with virulent Sermons and Books against the two Kings Among those who bestirred themselves in this kind were Father Comolet the Jesuit Genebrard Fr. Feu-ardentius and Bucherus famous for his Book de Justa Henrici 3 Abdicatione and many others mentioned by our Author And in their Sermons besides those ways of moving the
of his Marriage as hath been said in the year 1599 he obtained the Pope's Breve to certain Delegates L. 123. who upon hearing of the cause pronounced the Marriage null ab initio so that this points us to the time exactly and considering the common practice of the Court of Rome to neglecâ—â—no opportunity of promoting their own ends it cannot be thought that they would let this go without some assurance from the King of the restitution of the Jesuites which at the same time was earnestly sollicited It is true that the King 's beloved Mis who had engaged him to send to the Pope about it died in Child-birth before the commission to the Delegates was sent yet this hinders not but she might before have prevailed with him to give all satisfaction to the Pope in order to the obtaining of it and that thereupon he might so far have engaged to the Pope that he knew not afterwards how to get off when he would and this it seems was the true reason why the business hung so long and yet was done at last For thus Messius goes on relating the series of the business the King says he put it off from day to day as much as he could he did not refuse or excuse himself from denying it but sought delays and when he could no longer shift it off Quantum potuerat diem de die dixisse he proposed certain articles almost uniform to the contents of the Decree and by his Embassador laboured with the Pope to be content with their restitution under those conditions For the Pope demanded their universal restitution throughout the whole Kingdom but the King offered it in certain places appointed to a certain number and in the Territories subject to the Court of Paris were only two places assigned them From that time two years passed without any mention of the business whereat the King who desired to gratifie the Pope in it was troubled at length the King's Ambassador being instant with the Pope he answered that the articles proposed by the King seemed to him to be such as the Jesuites ought to be contented with them but that hitherto he had deferred his answer because the General of the Society Aquanina shewed himself not at all satisfied with them nor would subscribe to them c. that the business therefore was no longer in the King's power but transacted by agreement between the King and the Pope rem proinde amplius non esse integram sed de ea inter Regem Pontificem quasi pacto transactum fuisse All which shews sufficiently that the Pope had then gotten some hank upon him which he could not get off Nor can any other be easily assigned so probable as this which I have said Only one thing more 't is likely helped forward the business viz. a desire to secure his life by ingratiating himself with the regicides for so it is said that when his great favourite the D. of Sully disswaded him from their re-admission Foul. l. 9. c. 2. he answered Give me then security for my life And indeed though in his answer to that grave speech of the chief President Harlay in the name of the Parliament and in behalf of the University representing to him both from their principles and practices the danger of what he was about not only to the Kingdom but to his own person he made shew of great contempt of that danger and hopes which upon mature deliberation he had conceived of the good fruits which France might receive from their restitution and also of confidence in God who had thus preserved him hitherto for his future preservation yet since it does plainly appear by what was delivered by Messius from him to the Senate and there can be no reason to think otherwise that he was sore against his will viz. through some inconsiderate pre-ingagement from which he could not recede brought to it his other favours to them besides their re-admission may be thought to proceed from this principle and his shew of contempt of the danger to argue rather what he sought to conceal than what he pretended or at least that that contempt proceeded from his hopes of securing his own safety by this means For what-ever he pretended it could not proceed from a well grounded confidence of God's protection a thing inconsistent with his living in continued known sin by reason of his Amores which the Reverend Bishop of Paris doth frequently deplore and when he had before violated his conscience by his change of Religion for securing his Kingdom For who can with confidence expect any favour from him whom he doth daily knowingly injure and offend Besides that confidence is not always the meer result of a good conscience but is often raised in pious souls by the special influence of the Spirit of God who as he doth more and more encrease it in those who continually and sincerely endeavour to persevere and go forward in a diligent observance of his will and to raise their souls by a constant exercise of the dictates of Reason and Faith above the animal or bruitish nature so doth he always withdraw the same from those who decline to bruitish affections and if they go on so to do at last leaves them dis-spirited Quos perdere vult Jupiter dementat prius and obnoxious to base and deceitful shifts and devices whereby they pull down mischief upon their own heads especially when this is mixt with ingratitude against great mercies Nor can a sacrilegious and profane absolution by those who cry peace peace when there is no peace serve the turn without a due repentance proportionable to the fault with all its aggravations and a found reformation And for what fruits he might expect from their restitution for the good of the Kingdom his Parliament well informed him by the mouth of their worthy President Harlay in that notable speech which might well have deserved a larger place here had not so much been related already to that purpose from others As they have all one common Name and Vow so have they saith he certain heads of Doctrine wherein they all agree as that they acknowledge no Superior besides the Pope and to him they give Faith and an absolute Obedience and firmly believe that the Pope hath power to excommunicate Kings but that a King excommunicate is a Tyrant and that his subjects may with impunity make insurrection against him That every one of them who is initiated though but in the lower Orders of the Church whatsoever crime he commits cannot possibly incur the crime of Treason because they are not at all any longer the King's Subjects nor subject to his Jurisdiction Thus are the Ecclesiasticks by their Doctrine exempt from the secular Power and lawfully may with impunity lay bloudy violent hands upon the sacred persons of Kings This they assert in printed Books c. These false and erroneous Doctrines cannot be admitted by Kings and therefore
extinct he usurping the Kingdom might make himself King That he when it could not otherwise be did though full sore against his will extinguish one mischief by another and as in extream dangers did use extream remedies that he might extirpate that impure contagion out of the bowels of the Kingdom Therefore that all should take notice that whatsoever had been that day done by way of punishment upon those persons had been done by his special command After he had said these things Christophorus Thuanus chief President in a speech fitted to the time commended the King's prudence who by dissembling so many injuries had timely prevented the wicked conspiracy and the danger that was threatned by it and that that being suppressed he had now setled peace in the Kingdom having well learnt that saying of Lewis XI He that knows not how to dissemble knows not how to reign Then the Court was commanded that diligent enquiry should be made concerning the conspiracy of Coligny and his Associates and that they should give sentence according to form of Law as the heinousness of the fact did require Then lastly Vidus Faber Pibraccius Advocate of the Treasury or Attorney-General stood up and asked the King whether he did will and command that this declaration should be entred into the acts of the Court to the preservation of the memory of it whether the orders of Judges and Civil Magistrates which he had complained were corrupted should be reformed And lastly whether by his command there should be an end put to the slaughters and rapines To these things the King answered that he did command the first that he would take care about the second and that for the third he did give command by publick proclamation through all the streets of the City that they should for the future abstain from all slaughters and rapines Which declaration of the King astonished many and among the rest Thuanus himself who was a man of a merciful nature and altogether averse from bloud and feared that example and the danger that was threatned thereby who also did with great freedom privately reprove the King for that if the conspiracy of Coligny and his company had been true he did not rather proceed against them by Law This is most certain he did always detest St. Bartholomews-day using those verses of Statius Papinius in a different case Excidat illa dies aevo nec postera credant Saecula nos certe taceamus obruta multa Nocte tegi propriae patiamur crimina Gentis So that he seems to have commended the King's art by a speech fitted to the present time and place rather than from his heart The advising of the King to enquire into this conspiracy is thought to have been from James Morvillerius Bishop of Orleans who had left his Bishoprick to give himself wholly to the Court a man of a cautious nature but moderate and just and who was never the author of that bloudy counsel But when as that which was done could not be undone he thought it was best for the reputation of the King and for the publick Peace that since the odium of it could not be wholly abolished yet that it might by some means be mitigated he perswaded the King and Queen that to the things being now done they should though in a preposterous manner apply the authority of Law and that proof being made of the conspiracy judgment should be passed upon the conspirators in form of Law which thing Thuanus himself approved being consulted about it by Morvillerius upon the King's command Two days after a Jubilee is appointed and Prayers are made by the King and a full Court in a great assembly of people and thanks were returned to God for that things had succeeded so happily and according to their desires And the same day an Edict was published wherein the King declared that Whatsoever had happened in this matter was done by his express command not through hatred of their Religion or that it should derogate from the Edicts of Pacification which he would have to stand still in force and to be religiously observed but that he might prevent the wicked conspiracy of Coligny and his confederates Therefore that he did will and command that all Protestants should live at home quietly and securely under his protection and patronage and did command all his Governors to take diligent care that no violence or injury should be offered to them either in their lives goods or fortunes adding a sanction that whosoever did otherwise should understand that he did it under pain of life To these things a clause was finally added which the Protestants did interpret to contradict what he had said before that Whereas upon the account of their meetings and publick Assemblies great troubles and grievous offences had been stirred up they should for the future abstain from such meetings whether publick or private upon what pretence soever till further order was taken by the King upon pain of life and fortunes to those that disobeyed 26. These Edicts and Mandates were diversly entertained in the Provinces according to the divers natures and factions of the Governors for those that were addicted to the party of the Momorancies made a moderate use of them but great was the rage and fury of others to whom secret commands were brought not in writing but by Emissaries following the example of the Parisian Massacre The beginning was at Meaux as being nearest where the same day that the Massacre had been at Paris above two hundred were thrown into prison by Cossetus Advocate of the Treasury an impudent man who was chiefly assisted by Dionysius Rollandus an Apparitor and Columbus a Mariner The next day they set upon the Market that is out of the City and the men being slipt away they fell upon the women whereof 25 were slain and some of them violated by the rude murderers The day following after they had every where rifled the houses of the suspected they come to those that were imprisoned who being called out one by one by Cossetus himself were there slain as Oxen by Butchers in a Slaughter-house and thrown into the Castle-ditch and the greatest part of them the cut-throats being wearied were drowned in the River Marne And then Cosset us exhorts the neighbouring places that they should proceed in what had been so happily begun But the presence of Momorancy President of l'Isle la France who was then at Cantilia not far from thence did hinder the seditious from stirring at Senlis But great was the rage at Orleans which being once or twice taken by the Protestants the sad ruines of the demolished Churches lying open to the eyes of all did enkindle the minds of the people to revenge their injuries being yet fresh the day following therefore they began upon Campellus Bovillus one of the King's Counsellors whem being ignorant of what had happened at Paris Curtius a Weaver the leader of the seditious with some of his party
men and the Spainard money But this storm was blown over into Africa where Stucley and part of his men were slain However the next year is sent into Ireland from Spain James Fitz-Morice with some Companies of Souldiers Thu. lib. 68. and with them from the Pope Nic. Sanders our Author above mentioned with Authority Legatine and a consecrated Banner and to them the years after San Joseph with seven-hundred Italian and Spanish Souldiers Thu. lib. 70. and arms for five thousand more to arm the Irish and some store of money these being but * Bacons Observations the forerunners of a greater Power which by treaty between the King of Spain and the Pope should have followed and the Pope to animate the Irish sends them his Breve with Apostolical Benediction wherein reciting that he had of late years by his Letters exhorted them to the Recovery of their Liberty 〈◊〉 Hist Catnol Hibern and Defence of it against the Hereticks c. and that they might more cheerfully do it had granted to all such as should be any ways assisting therein a Plenary Pardon and Forgiveness of All their Sins he now grants to all such whom he also exhorts requires and urges in the Lord to indeavour to help against the said hereticks the same Plenary Indulgence and Remission of their Sins which those who fight against the Turk do obtain And to this expedition the Pope promised a Crucias and 1000000. Aurea But all these with their Irish Confederates the Earl of Desmond his brothers and their party were very happily defeated by the Queens forces at the very instant when divers ships upon the Sea were bringing them more forces and assistance and the Popes Legate Sanders died miserably of hunger and as some say mad upon the ill success of the Rebellion 29. About this time the Seminaries began to swarm and because the Bull of Pius v. Sanders p. 372. Camd. p. 180. and not yet sufficiently produced its intended and expected effect even with a great part of the Papists themselves who seeing the neighbour Popish Princes and Provinces not to abstein from their usual commerce with the Queen continued still in their Obedience to her and were offended at the Bull as a mischievous snare to them therefore for their satisfaction it is Decreed at Rome Thu. lib. 74. Camd. an 1580. that the Bull doth always Oblige Elizabeth and the Hereticks but not the Catholicks rebus sic stantibus but only then when they should be able publickly to put it in execution And that it might in due time be effectually Executed Missions are made into England to Prepare a Party to adhere to the Spaniard at his coming to invade us Bacon Observ Collect. Consid And the better to conceal and disguise the Practice and make the Queen and her Councel the more secure it is Resolved not to have any Head of the party here But the Emissaries coming dayly over in various Disguised Habits deal particularly Camd. sine Ann. 1580. and so more effectually with the people in their secret Confessions Absolving them particularly in private from Obedience and Fidelity to the Queen Camd. p. 315.348 as the Bull of Pius v. had done in publick but only in general and severally Engaging them in that secret manner as hath been before mentioned so as none could be privy to others engagements And these Doctrines were every where inculcated Camb. fin An. 1581. Thu. l. 74. That Princes not professing the Roman Religion are fallen from their Title and Royal Authority 2. That Princes Excommunicate are not to be Obeyed but thrown out of their Kingdoms and that it is a meritorious work to do it 3. That the Clergy are exempt from the Jurisdiction of Secular Princes and are not bound by their Laws 4. That the Pope of Rome hath the Chief and Full Power and Authority over All throughout the whole world even in Civil matters 5. That the Magistrates of England are not Lawful Magistrates and therefore not to be accounted Magistrates at all 6. That what ever since the Bull of Pius v. was published which some hold to have been dictated by the Holy Ghost hath by the Queens Authority been acted in England is by the Law of God and Man to be reputed altogether void and null These Doctrines thus secretly instilled into mens minds in private were seconded with several pernitious Books in print against the Queen and Princes Excommonicate And as well to deter the rest from Obedience and move them to Expectation of Change and Reconciliation to the Church of Rome as to encourage their own party Camd. an 1580 l. 318. they not only by Rumours but also by printed Books gave out that the Pope and King of Spain had conspired to subdue England and take it for a prey Gollect of the Churches This is true says Sir Fr. Bacon and witnessed by the Confessions of many that almost all the Priests which were sent into this Kingdom from that year 1581. to the year 1588. at what time the Design of the Pope and Spain was put in Execution had in their Instructions besides other parts of their Function to distil and insinuate into the People these Particulars It was impossible things should continue at this stay They should see ere long a great change in this State That the Pope and Catholick Princes were careful for the English if they would not be wanting to themselves Which are almost the very words of Sanders mentioning the considerations upon which these Seminaries were at first founded But notwithstanding this Camâ—â— an 81. Tâ—â— lib 74. Bac. Collect. we are not to think that All the Priests which were sent over were acquainted with the Arcana and Secrets of the Disign but only the Superiours and some of the best qualified for the business who managed and steered the actions of the rest according to their private Instructions 30. Hereupon says Rishton who published and inlarged Sanders his book speaking of these Missions soon after ensued a great change of minds and wonderful encrease of Religion Which that we may know it by its Fruits presently appeared in several desperate attempts and Resolutions to Kill the Queen First by Somervil who being taken and condemned with Hall a Priest and others whom he confessed was three days after found strangled in the prison for fear probably least he should have discovered others Then to pass by the practise of Bern. Mendoza the Spanish Ambassadour Lieger here with Throgmorton and Martins book by William Parry Doctor of Law encouraged thereunto by Ben. Palmius a Jesuite Thn. lib. 79. Ragazonius the Popes Nuncio in France Cardinal Como and the Pope himself who sends him his Benediction Plenary Indulgence and Remission of all his Sins and assures him that besides his Merit which he shall have in Heaven his Holiness will remain his debtor to acknowledge his desert in the best manner he can and after
Liberty of their Prince and Lawful Governour and against those who did aspire not to the Regency onely but to the Crown and Kingdom it self by a long train of policies and violent Cruelties But this War was rather sharp than long which besides the slaughter of eight thousand men in one battel at Dreux besides great bloodshed and mischief in many other places was in short time the destruction of two of the principal Authors of it Navarre and * He was shot returning from the Camp to his Quarters by Poltret who being taken upon his examination said he was imployed by Colinius and exhorted to it by Beza but being brought to the rack he utterly denyed it and concerning Beza persevered in his denyal to the last but concerning Colinius being brought to execution and with the terrour of his approaching execution being besides himself he one while affirmed and another while denyed it Colinius and Beza calling God to witness utterly denyed it and Colinius wrote to the Queen that before his execution the business might be further examined but he was in few days after executed Thuanus lib. 34. But was it really so Who employed and exhorted Parry not against a Commander of an Army but against his Prince who Lopez who so many more against Queen Elizabâ—th who James Clement to murther Henry the third of France who Jo. Chastel to murther Henry the fourth To mention no more Guise being both slain and the Constable the only surviving Triumvir being taken Prisoner thereupon an Accomodation followed without difficulty upon these Conditions among others That all free Lords not holding of any but the Crown might within their Jurisdictions freely exercise the Reformed Religion that the other Feudataries might do the same in their own houses for their own families provided they lived not in †So Davila but Thuanus lib. 35. modo ne in pagis aut municipiis habitent quae majori jurisdictioni regia excepta subsunt any City or Town where the Courts resided That in every Province certain Cities should be appointed in the Fauxburg whereof the Protestants might Assemble at their Devotion That in all other Cities and Towns every one should live free in his Conscience without trouble or molestation That all should have full Pardon for all Delinquences committed during or by occasion of the War declaring all to be done to a good end without any offence to the Royal Majesty and all be restored to their places c. And these and the rest were ratified in Counsel by an Edict of Pacification under the Kings own hand and Seal verified in Parliament and Proclaimed by sound of Trumpet in March 1562 3. which had they been honestly and justly observed might by Gods blessing have been a means of much peace and happiness to that Kingdom but we find the contrary as to the Observance and therefore no wonder if the contrary also to so hopeful and happy consequence and issue of it For no sooner was this War concluded upon this Edict of Pacification ratified with all the formalities and solemnities used for the establishing and confirming of Laws in France but the Edict began presently to be violated the Protestants in divers places bâ—th disturbed in their Religious Assemblies which this and other Laws allowed them to hold and injured in their Civil Rights and in divers manners frequently and grievously oppressed and that not onely by concourses and assaults of the vulgar and Rabble who having no pretence of Authority were many times with like force repulsed by the others Thu. l. 35 36 37 39. but even by the Presidents of the Provinces and other Magistrates whose duty it was to have seen the Laws justly observed but did the quite contrary and that not only by connivance at the exorbitances of the vulgar but also by their own actual iniquity Thu. l. 37. and that no part or kind of injustice might be wanting both by force and violence and also by fraud by breach of faith by subornation of witnesses Thu. l. 39. by false calumniations By which means and such like arts together with the mediation of their potent friends at Court the passionate young King being before prejudiced by the Arts of the Guisian faction especially the Cardinal of Lorain and further incensed by the Legate of Spain the Pope and Savoy who notwithstanding the late Edict urged him to banish and otherwise punish the Protestants and revoke the Liberty granted by it to them they easily obtained that the Complaints of the Protestants which were dayly brought to the King were anteverted and either totally rejected or cluded and the persons employed to exhibit the same ordinarily so discountenanced and discouraged that they were forced to return without any effect if not imprisoned and for the greatest violences and enormities even murther it self by which as some write not so few as three thousand had perished since the Edict of pacification could obtain no remedy or redress And of all this many plain and notable examples and proofs might be produced out of our Noble Excellent Historian Lib. 35 36 37 39. were it not too long to do it We might instance in that notable practice of the Bishop of Pamiers which gave the first occasion of that very tumult which that smooth Italian Davila mentions and while he exaggerates the actions of the Protestants in it with no little partiality conceals the first and true occasion of it but perhaps being a Courtier he relates it and other such passages as they were then by the Artifices and means above mentioned represented at the Court Nor was the Royal Authority abus'd to concur in this Iniquity and Injustice only by connivence and permission of these things thus done by the Kings Ministers and Officers in fraud and violation of the Agreement of Peace and the Edict made in Confirmation of it but also to give further occasion and countenance to it by divers fraudulent and elusory Interpretations of the Edict By which means whiles it seems it was thought too gross plainly and directly to revoke it they did notwithstanding indirectly elude its effect and the benefit expected by it in such sort that had the Protestants been of those pernitious principles that their adversaries indeed were and endeavoured to represent them to be the most subtile and malitious enemies of that Kingdom could not have devised and promoted a more effectual means and method of its confusion and ruine And the truth is this was it which the principal Authors and Fomenters of those courses the Guises at home and the Spaniards abroad aimed at and by these means in conclusion to make themselves Master of it Which though at that time not so visible to every one yet was afterwards very apparent The Pope also because France stood too much upon their Liberties and Priviledges being a well wisher to their designs especially of Guise though not so much of Spain as not desiring so potent a Neighbour But
raised against it besides Aumale Tular Cossens Goa his Brother and other 40000 Souldiers the very number said by Davila to have been slain in the massacre being slain and dead of sickness and among these 60 chief * Ordinum Ductores Commanders and as some say most of the actors of that tragedy besides a vast deal of mony and military provisions spent and at last things being reduced to those streights that the King contrary to what bad before been falsly perswaded him thought himself a greater gainer by that Peace than by the Parisian slaughter Such were the effects whether of the Italian Policy or the Roâ—ish Doctrine of not keeping Faith with Hereticks 50. He had no sooner ended this War Tâ—â— l. 57. but he began to be grievously afflicted with that fatal disease which in few months after put an end to his life not without suspition of poison by his Mother and Brother Anjou and besides in the mean time by her arts and the influences of the Guises upon her was presently involved in a fit of Civil War And this not only against the Protestants whom having sufficient cause from former experience to beware of the perfidiousness and cruelty of their enemies after other new occasions of suspition she forced again to provide for their security and stand upon their defence by a perfidious attempt to surprize Rochel by her emissaries who had corrupted some in the City to betray it to the Forces which for that purpose they had drawn near it but also against a considerable party of the Catholicks as they call them whom while she thought it necessary for the continuance of her power and authority in the government to keep up and foment factions among the chief Nobility she by over-doing what she designed forced for their own safety and security to joyn their complaints and forces with the Protestants Whereby considering the division of that party she in some sort repaired the loss which the Protestant party had sustained by the massacres the Providence of God undoubtedly thus ordering it to manifest the vanity of their former hopes of peace and tranquility by such wicked courses for the destruction of the Protestants and to punish by their mutual dissentions among themselves their former unanimity in persecuting them The chief of this party were the sons of the old Constable Momorancy in his time an active persecutor of the Protestants the Viscount de Turenne and others whom the Queen favouring the contrary faction of the Guises continually by divers calumnies incensing and exasperating the King against them and by other stratagems which they discovered drove into despair of safety by any other means which no doubt was not a little increased by the experience which they had seen of her perfidiousness and cruelty in the case of the Protestants all men being suspitious of those whom they have observed false and perfidious to others And to these Alancon the King's younger Brother upon the same occasions besides some other causes of discontent joyned himself as head Besides those of the Nobility there were two other subsidiary Factions in the Court. Thu. l. 59. pr. The one of those who desirous by any means to retain the Religion of their Ancestors and careless for any amendment or reformation of it did easily suffer themselves in favour of them who took up Arms under pretence of defending it to be drawn in either by fraudulent interpretations to elude or plainly and altogether to violate the Faith given to the Protestants The other of those who would not depart from the religion of their ancestors but yet desired many things in it in tract of time through covetousness and gross ignorance brought in to the dishonour of God and offence of many to be corrected and therefore being more favourable to the Protestants held that things ought to be transacted in a friendly manner with them that the Faith publickly given them should be faithfully kept and that by any means peace without which the business of reformation could not proceed should be setled The first favoured the Guises who sought all occasions of War the latter the Momorances who perswaded Peace Of this last opinion were those famous men Michael Hospitalius Chancellor of France Paulus Foxius Many others were of the same mind as Jo. Monlue Bishop of Valence and Car. Marillac Arch-Bishop of Vienna Thu. l. 25. Christophorus Thuanus Christophorus Menilius though they never engaged in Arms on either side And this was the party which were called Politicks a name saith our Author by the seditious attributed to them who were studious for the good of the King and peace of the Kingdom li. 52. and male contents But that faction which desired stirs alwaies prevailing in the Court hence it came to pass that so many Edicts of Pacification were made one upon another and as often violated the War being so often renewed and with the same levity where-with it was begun laid down again Whereof the King by this time became sensible Thu. l. 57. and observed but when it was too late that that unhappy massacre had contrary to what was expected dissolved the bonds of peace and publick security And therefore with indignation perceiving that the Counsellors of it had more respect to the satisfaction of their own private hatred and ambition than to the publick Faith and quiet of the Kingdom without which he could never keep up his Royal Majesty being not a little incensed against them he resolved from that time to remove them from the Council and to send away from him his mother her self under a more honourable colour of visiting her son Anjou in Poland whom he had newly almost by force thrust out of France having to be rid of him procured him to be chosen King there And believing that the Civil Wars in France were raised not so much for the cause of Religion as through the factions of that Kingdom that the chief leaders of them were the Guises and the Momorances he resolved without any regard of the Law or the justice of either cause to destroy both these potent Families being no less exasperated against Guise than Momorancy and therefore had often thoughts of taking him out of the way But in the midst of these troubles without in his Kingdom and others within in his mind and body after very grievous and long pains so that long before his death he felt himself dying he ended his life every way miserable by that sickness which few thought natural Pauâ—i naturalem ei rebantur memores quae summus dissimulandâ— artifex prae impatientia interminatus matri frotri â—sset neque ignari quam non sponte nonus Rex Galliam relinqueret p. 441. in octav and again p. 493. Mortut corpus a Chirurgis medicis apertum in quo livores ex causa incognita reperti conceptam multorum opinionem auxerunt potius quam minuerunt l. 57. but rather procured by
his own Mother and Brother Anjou as our Author doth sufficiently intimate and was further remarkable by the effusion of his own bloud who had so perfidiously and barbarously shed the bloud of so many of his subjects Davila saith he began some months before to spit bloud others that he died of a Bloudy-flux and that much bloud issued out of all the passages of his body and that he happened to fall down and wallowed in his own bloud And whereas Davila says that he ended his life with grave and pious discourses others say that he ended it with imprecations and cursings and that his last words were meer blasphemies Whereof which is most credible the reader considering his natural temper life and actions may easily judge He died under five and twenty years of age without issue male to succeed him leaving only a daughter by his Queen with whom he had been above four years married and a bastard-son And these were the fruits which he reaped of his bloudy and persidious counsels and practices 51. Nor did his next Brother Anjou called Henr. 3. reap any better fruits of his counsels and actions in the massacre and other enterprizes against the Protestants who in great haste Thu. l. 58. upon notice of his Brother's death shamefully stealing from his Kingdom of Poland in his return to France was well admonished by the Emperor Maximilian that at the beginning of his Reign and first entrance into France he should settle peace among his subjects and the same counsel was often repeated to him by the Duke of Venice in the name of the Senate Yet he was no sooner arrived in France but by the counsel of his Mother and the Guisian and Italian faction the same Cabal which contrived the massacre he resolved the contrary till finding it a work too hard by open force to destroy the remaining part of the Protestants being moreover strengthened by the association of the Politicks with them there was at last a Peace concluded upon such terms as Thu. l. 62. Davila l. 6. had they been granted in sincerity and justly performed might have produced much happiness to that Kingdom For besides what related to the particular concerns of Alancon D'Anvil and others of the Politicks and male-contents to the Protestants was granted full liberty of Conscience and free exercise of their Religion without exception of times or places c. and Towns for their security till the Articles should be fully and perfectly performed And these Articles were concluded by the Queen-Mother her self in person and confirmed by a publick Edict with all the solemnity that could be the King himself being present in Parliament sitting in his Throne of Justice But these Articles says Davila as soon as they were known to those of the Catholick party exasperated most of their minds in such manner that they not only murmured freely against the King himself and the Queen-Mother but many were disposed to rise and would have taken Arms to disturb the unjustness as they call it of that Peace which was generally by them esteemed shameful and not fit to be kept if within a-while they had not manifestly understood that the King and Queen purposely to recover and draw home the Duke of Alancon had consented to conditions in words which they were resolved not to observe in deeds For as he presently adds having exactly performed all things promised to the Duke of Alancon none of the other Articles were observed either to the Protestants in general or to the King of Navar and Prince of Conde in particular but the King permitting and tacitly consenting to it the Assemblies of the Protestants were every where violently disturbed c. And the Guises who were not slack in laying hold of any opportunity to augment their own greatness and to secure the state of that Religion which was so streightly linked to their interests began upon the conjuncture of so great an occasion secretly to make a league of the Catholicks in all the Provinces of the Kingdom under colour of opposing the progress and establishment of heresy which by the Articles of the Peace was so fully authorized and established And this was the Faith of a Catholick Prince whose Conscience was directed by the religious Jesuites and so great a votary that though a King Thu. l. 61 Busbeq epist 20. he would often make one of the Flagellantes and was believed would have changed his Kingdom for a Cell though Guise had never attempted to force him to it this the obedience and loyalty of his Catholick Subjects But this was nothing to what followed for his was but the beginning of that Holy League which may justly put to silence all clamours and answer all calumnies against the Protestants in France upon occasion of any miscarriages of theirs under so long and grievous oppressions and unjust persecutions and was the pattern and precedent which was followed by that faction here which the Romish Emissaries and Agents partly raised and partly ruled or secretly influenced to promote their own designs as may be perceived by comparing such evidences and testimonies as are to be met with of their mysterious practices in their works of darkness with their Principles laid down to undermine this Church and State extant in printed Books Lib. 6. p. 449. Lib. 8. c. 2. p. 496. Thu. l. 63. The form of the League may be seen in English at large in Davila and Fonlis to this effect The Covenant of the Princes Lords and Gentlemen of the Catholick Religion for the entire restitution of the Law of God and preservation of his holy worship according to the form and rites of the holy Church of Rome abjuring and renouncing all errors contrary to it 2. For the preservation of King Henr. 3. and his Successors in the State Honour Splendor Authority Duty Service and Obedience due to them c. 3. For the restitutton of their ancient rites liberties and priviledges to the Provinces of the Kingdom c. In case there be any opposition against this aforesaid or any of the Covenanters their friends or dependants be molested or questioned for this cause by whomsoever it be all that enter into this Covenant shall be bound to imploy their lives and fortunes to take vengeance upon them either by way of justice or force without any exception of persons what-ever They who depart from this Covenant shall be punished both in body and goods All shall likewise swear to yield ready obedience and faithful service unto that Head which shall be deputed and to give all help counsel and assistance as well for the maintenance of this League as for the ruine of all that shall oppose it without exception of persons and those that fail shall be punished by the authority of the Head c. All the Catholicks of the several Cities Towns and Villages shall be secretly advertised by the particular Governors to enter into this League and concur in providing Men Arms
and aggravated the load of it upon his own head the one during the Reign of his Brother in the Massacre wherein he was both a Counsellor and an Actor the other after he came to the Crown himself in his breach of publick Faith with the Protestants Of both which we may observe a very correspondent and exemplary judgment and punishment His sickness of a * Da. p. 777. Thu. l. 94. Bloudy-flux for some time before he was stabbed his death without issue and ere he had lived out half his days may perhaps have respect to his Grand-fathers and Fathers sins seeking by bloudy courses to extirpate the Protestants because these were not peculiar to himself but common to him with his other Brothers But when we see that very City of Paris where the Protestants with the concurrence of his †Eorumque Lotaringorum in gratiam pracipuus author suasor Parisiensis lanienae suisse creditur de qua gloriarisapius auditus est Thu. l. 96. counsel and assistance had been so furiously destroyed now no less furious against him that City which to others had given example of cruelty against the Protestants now gives them example of rebellion against him and him on the other side no less enraged against it saying but the day before that fatal stroke that he hoped within a few days there should be neither walls nor houses but only the very foot-steps of Paris when we see almost all those who had been the executors of that Massacre and were not cut off at the Siege of Rochel as most of them were of the common sort especially now engaged in Arms against him and those who had joyned with him to destroy the Protestants now conspiring his destruction when we see him excommunicated by the Pope whose pretended authority is the principal part of that Religion which with so much cruelty and perfidiousness was sought to be established by that Massacre Lastly when we see after all imaginable injuries and indignities offered him his murder not only plotted and counselled by the chief of the Grand Council at Paris but also executed by an Emissary sent from thence by a religious Zealot of that Religion for which himself had been so barbarously cruel and in that * Thu. l. 51. Serres p. 789. very place at St. Cloud where some time the Council of the Massacre had been held This we may not without reason look upon as the just judgment of God upon him for his wicked dealings in that barbarous Massacre Again when we see his Popish Subjects every where break faith with him and all bonds and oaths of Obedience and Fidelity to him and teach and hold it to be their duty so to do when we see them through whose importunity he had violated the publick faith given to the Protestants to rage and storm and furiously exclaim upon his breach of faith with themselves when we see him brought to need and desire the assistance of the King of Navar and his Protestants with whom he had broken faith against those for whom to comply with their perfidious and rebellious humours he did it and by them notwithstanding thus brought to his end and murthered with whom he had so basely complied in that perfidious dealing this we may likewise with great reason look upon as a just judgment of God upon him for that his perfidious dealing with the Protestants And certainly if all the circumstances of the History from that barbarous Massacre of the Protestants at Merindol and Cabriers under Francis 2. to the death of this his Grand-son Henr. 3. the last of his race for almost 50 years be duly considered it will be hard to find in any History a more eminent example of Divine Vengeance prosecuting a Family to the utter extirpation of it than this an example wherein the judgment of God is more conspicuous and remarkable or the causes of that judgment more manifest and apparent wherein the sin and the punishment do more exactly agree or of a more remarkable distinguishing providence if with this the hapy reign and actions of their neighbour Prince Queen Elizabeth be impartially compared This was a judgment not upon one person alone nor upon a Family so as to involve all in one sudden destruction as is sometimes seen but a continued prosecution of vengeance against a whole Family for three generations without intermission V. Sect. 39. the Grand-father Fran. 1. not long enjoying himself or his life after he had authorized that fatal persecution His Son Henr. 2. having time to repent and reform and admonished so to do by his dying Father but persevering in his Fathers sin cut off by a violent death in the height and heat of his persecutions against the Protestants and upon his consummation of an agreement for a War against them His four Sons all living to be men but not to half the age of men three of them coming successively to the Crown but so as rather only to wear the Crown than by a just and peaceable exercise of their authority to sway the Scepter being at first over-ruled by the deceitful and pernicious counsels of their Mother and her Italians and the violent courses of the Guisian Faction to destroy their subjects and at last necessitated by the bold attempts of the Guisians and fury of the Leaguers to fight for Crown Liberty and Life against them whereby they and their Kingdom were continually embroiled in Civil Wars and miserable confusions each of them succeeding other as in their access to the Crown so in their unhappy reign if they might be said to reign while so obnoxious to the wills of others and continually imbroiled in such confusions and exit and catastophre of it the first Francis 2. cut off by a death remarkable though not for the kind yet for the time and season of it both in respect of his years and of those who were preserved by it V. Sect. 40. p. 63 64. the next Charles 9. living some years longer and thereby more capable by his own personal management of the affairs of the Kingdom to derive the guilt of his Ancestors miscarriages upon himself and increase it by his own which accordingly he did in no mean degree being likewise cut off by a death every way remarkable in respect both of the time and all other circumstances and lastly the third Brother Hen. 3. coming likewise to that unhappy end which hath been but now related all of them with their Brother Alancon dying without issue to succeed them Nor did this fate attend only the succession but light also upon those who were incapable to succeed in the Government their bastard Brother Angolesme who had been a forward actor in the Massacre being also as hath been said cut off by a violent death and of their Sisters Elizabeth the eldest * V. Sect. 39. p. â—â— married to Phil. 2. of Spain a Marriage concluded with an agreement between him and her Father of a
Spaniard or subject of Spain as appears from the series of those who for these 50 years from the beginning of their Society have been their Generals for such were 1. Ignatius Loiola their founder 2. Jac. Lain 3. Enaristus 4. Fr. Borgia and 5. at present Cl. Aquanina that to their vow these horrible words are annexed in which they profess to acknowledge Christ as present in their General that their Sect whereas in Italy and France at the beginning it was generally opposed was with great applause approved in Spain they pray day and night for the safety and prosperity of the pious prudent vigilant Catholick King of Spain who opposeth himself a sa wall of defence for the house of God the Catholick Faith but for the most Christian King of France never and let the F. General say the word that the King of France should be killed the command of the Spaniard must ex voti necessitate be obeyed That though upon their petition at Rome for the Popes Confirmation an 1539. they were at first opposed yet at last obtained it this fourth vow being added to it that they should be ready to obey the Pope at a beck which is that which doth so much ingratiate them at Rome but ought to make them so much the more suspected in France And that their Counsels tend to the subversion of the Kingdom is hence manifest that when ever the Popes exceeding their authority have sent out their censures against the Kingdom of France there have not been wanting pious men who with the common suffrage of the Gallican Church have couragiously opposed such their rash attempts as he shews more at large from divers instances in the times of Carolus Calvus Ludovicus Pius Philippus Pulcher Carolus vi and Ludovicus xii but now in these late tumults it hath fallen out quite contrary the sacred Order being corrupted with the venom of this sect and taught that he who is once chosen Pope although of the Spanish Nation or Faction and a sworn enemy to the French may notwithstanding give up the whole Kingdom for a prey and absolve the French from their Faith and Obedience which they owe to their Prince That this is a schismatical and detestable opinion altogether contrary to the word of God who hath divided the spiritual power from the secular as far as Heaven is from the Earth and as much repugnant to the safety and conservation of Kingdoms as it is certain that the true Christian Religion is necessary thereunto That these monsters have kindled these furies in the minds of the French and excited so many slaughters and horrid confusions every where Hence that publick assertion of Tanquerellus 33 years since V. supra sect 41. p. 66. that the Popes may declare the King's subjects free from their Oath of Fidelity Hence that resolution 5 years since by the greater number of the Colledge of Sorbon that is those who were new moulded in the shop of the Jesuites that Subjects may be absolved from their Obedience to their Prince V. sect 53. That this Vow instituted by the Castilians of Spain which with so strait a tye binds mens consciences to the perpetrating of any kind of enterprize and to the killing of Kings themselves by suborned emissaries hath dissolved and wholly abolished the glorious institutes of our Ancestors the Laws of the Realm and the liberties of the Gallican Church whereas we have received this Law from our Ancestors that the Oath of Fidelity whereby the Subjects of France are obliged to their Kings can by no censures of the Popes be dissolved which is so conjoyned with the safety and weal of the Kingdom that without certain ruine it cannot be severed from it that the Royal Power in that suffers no rival nor admits any equal Jurisdiction That these emissaries and assertors of this excessive power in the Pope crept in insensibly at first in small numbers into France but in short time filled the whole Kingdom and with secret frauds and seditious Sermons have stirred up the wars That the first Conspiracies more pernitious than the Bacchanaâ—s and that of Cataline were hatched in their Colledge at Paris that the Spanish Agents did often secretly convene there that there the Nobility at their secret Confessions were enjoyned for the expiation or satisfaction of their sins to engage for the League viz. by a special commutation of penance into an heroick act of virtue and those who refused were denied the benefit of absolution That by them was the sedition at Vesuna stirred up and the rebellions at Agen Tholouse c. and the Spanish Souldiers brought into Paris that by their counsel the Council of xvi emboldned by the forein Forces offered the Kingdom of France to the King of Spain and 13 daies after ensued that detestable butchery of the principal Senators That at their Schools at Lions and afterward at Paris was made the late Conspiracy for the murder of the King as is attested by the confessions of Barriere for among them they are held for real Martyrs who lay out their lives for the killing of Kings Hence F. Commotet the last Christmas taking for his text out of the book of Judges the example of Ehud who slew the King of Moab and fled away cried out We have need of another Ehud whether Monk or Souldier or Lacquey or Shepherd it matters not Hence the furious speeches of Bernard and Commotet calling the King Olofernes Moab Nero Herod and every where bawling in their Sermons that the Kingdom may be transferred by Election c. That among these counterfeit Priests it is a symbol of their profession One God one Pope and one King of the Christian World meaning the Catholick King to whom they design the universal Monarchy of the whole World stirring up every where wars and rebellions that thereby the vast body of that Empire may grow up and devour the lesser Princes That by them Philip King of Spain when he had long gaped after the Kingdom of Portugal and foresaw that so long as the King and Nobility continued in safety he could not obtain his desires perswaded the young King Sebastian having removed his intimate and faithful friends from him to sail into Affrica and rashly engage in fight upon great disadvantage contrary to the opinion of all his party wherein himself and almost all the flower of the Portugal Nobility perished Nor did they cease till they had also ruined Don Antonio and till the King of Spain * V. Harlaeum apud Thu. l. 132. not so much by his Arms as by their Arts had made himself Master of the Kingdom Nor ought it to impose upon the credulous that they are vulgarly reputed serviceable for the †V. Sim. Marion apud Thu. l. 119. instruction of youth whose manners they rather corrupt instilling evil principles into their tender minds which in that age make the greater impression upon them and under a shew of Piety teach them to embrue
but his little stature saying that there needed a more robust man In his journey at Vermand he understood that the King was reconciled to the Church and came to the Crown by lawful succession yet he went on as far as St. Denys but from thence returned to Bruxels to the Legate and gave him this reason of his return whereat the Legate shaked his head and telling him that the Bearnois so he called the King and all his party stood still excommunicated by the Pope perswaded him to persevere in his purpose to whom Ridicone answered if I could see the Pope's mandate then it should soon be considered on At the same time Pet. Arger of the same Monastery at Gant having first treated with Malavicinus at Bruxels and then going to Rome being returned from thence likewise undertook the design of killing the King Some time after Ridicone with whom a servant of the Legates had afterward dealt in secret went also to Rome whither Malavicinus had returned where being by him confirmed in his purpose he took his journey by Milan and having there communicated the business to the Spanish Ministers he came into France about the same time that Alex. Medices the Pope's Legate arrived there the King being then reconciled not only to the Church but to the Pope also At last being taken when the King saw that the business could not be examined in a judiciary way without the great infamy of Malavicinus and that not without some reflexion upon the Pope with whom he was already reconciled and moreover casting some suspition upon the Arch-Duke to the disturbance of the business of peace whereof some overtures had been made by the Legate he resolved to dissemble it and dismiss Ridicone out of the Kingdom requiring him not to return again upon pain and penalty of Treason Being returned to Gaunt he resumed his former design of killing the King and after some secret conference at the Monastery of St. Vincent in the King of Spain's Territories he returned again into France where being again apprehended he was condemned and executed At his Trial being asked how he could think of such a thing as to kill the King he answered that by the frequent Sermons from the Pulpit and daily Disputations in the School which he heard and moreover the praises of James Clemont as of a glorious Martyr who had devoted himself for the liberty of the French every where resounding not only at the Churches but in the Markets Streets and at Feasts he was easily perswaded that he should do a thing pleasing and acceptable to God who should kill the cruel Tyrant who without any right tore in pieces that most Christian Kingdom with the loss of so many souls and therefore when Malavicinus did moreover furnish him with the authority of God and the Pope to that purpose he readily undertook it being put to the rack he made no otheroâ—nsession than he had done before At the same time was also executed one Nic. Anglus a Capuchin Frier of St. Michel in the Diocess of Thoul in Lorrain being convicted and condemned for the same crime The next year after Ridicone was first apprehended and while he was in prison Ledesma a Minister of the King of Spain Thu. l. 118. employed one Pet. Owen a Carthusian Frier who for his dissolute manners being censured in his Monastery had fled into Spain to suborn an emissary to murder the King Owen having treated with a Souldier in the King's Army about it to whom he had made great promises was himself the next year after apprehended and convicted both by witnesses and by his own confessions but was pardoned by the King in respect to the Carthusians being satisfied to have taken the evidence in a judicial manner whereupon he might when he pleased expostulate with the Spaniards But shortly after these things ensued the Peace with Spain at Vervins and not long after some hopes given of the restitution of the Jesuites which was at last granted as we have seen whereupon one might have thought that his enemies being all either subdued or reconciled having reconciled himself to the Church to the Pope to those of the League who remained unsubdued to the Spaniard and to the Jesuites that he should henceforward have enjoyed his Kingdom his new Religion which had brought all these blessings with it and his Misses too at least his life in safety But alas it may be feared he had forgotten to reconcile himself truly to his God which made the rest but male facta gratia quae ne quiequam coit rescinditur For when a mans ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him But while he was thus endeavouring to engage the Jesuites to himself the Spaniard on the other side spared neither pains Thu. l. 132. nor promises that by their emissaries they might allure to themselves the minds of those who through the late Civil Wars were alienated from him and under the specious colour of Religion might invite them to disturb the publick peace and quiet of the Kingdom laying hold on all occasions for that purpose and that they might discover his arcana secret counsels and from the knowledge of them the better order their own designs made it their main business to corrupt those who were employed by the principal Officers and Ministers of State Thus among others Nic. L'Oste whom the Secretary Villeroy employed in decysering letters being corrupted by them with an annual pension of 1200 Crowns l. 128. continually discovered all the secrets of the mto the Spanish Embassador They had before corrupted the Mareshal de â—iron and some other persons of Quality which being discovered brought him to his end about two years since and now they not only again set upon the Count d'Auvergne L 132. 134. who had been convicted of Biron's conspiracy and pardoned but also the Seigneur d'Entragues and the Marquise de Vernevil his beautiful and witty daughter the King's Miss to corrupt them and that by no meaner or other agents than their Embassadors in France Jo. Taxis and his successor Batth Sunica who to introduce him at first made use of an English sugitive Th. Morgan an actor in the Conspiracies against his own Princess Queen Elizabeth L. 134. The next year this same Embassador Suniga first in person and afterwards to avoid suspition by his Secretary Brunellus treated and at last agreed with Lewis Merargues a Gentleman of Provence to betray Marseilles to the King of Spain which both Merargues and Brunellus confessed being apprehended in private conference in Merargues's Chamber and in Brunellus his hose under his garter was a paper found written in Spanish with his own hand which confirmed the same Vn memoire contenant le plan de son entreprise Perefix These things I the rather note because of use as well to confirm the truth of their like practices in England as to help to ground some conjecture
horrid murthers of all his friends the more excusable About eighteen years after when he was grown up to maturity about the thirty sixt year of his age and had given some testimony of his constancy in his Profession and for his encouragement had received no small testimonies of Divine favour not only preserving and conducting him safe through many dangers and difficulties but leading him by the hand to the possession of the Kingdom and making way for him by the extirpation of a whole Family another Trial was assigned him by the great Agonothetes V. Ecclesiasticus 2.1.2 3 c. who never ceaseth to provide new matter and occasions of trial and exercise for all those who once apply themselvs to his service till either by many mutual experiments given and received of their fidelity and constancy to him and of his admirable Providence never failing them but ordering all for their good they become more than Conquerors and well setled and confirmed in his service one great reason of the difficulties and adversities wherewith good men are frequently exercised or on the other side after many acts of unfaithfulness whereby their courage and resolution is more and more broken and abated they become easily affrighted or allured from their duty and at last either wholly deserting or little regarding the same are accordingly by him abandoned to the deceitful and pernitious courses of their own lusts and devices The former was a trial whether he would be frighted or forced from his fidelity this rather whether he would be allured from it In the former he failed and now having had time to repent and resume new courage and resolution he is again called upon the stage and in the first assault he behaved himself not much amiss For who can mislike his referring all to the determination and advice of a lawful General or National Council had be been sincere and continued constant in this resolution V. Thu. l. 98. 101 103. Nor did he want encouragement in this respect from the forward and couragious opposition which on his behalf was made against the Pope's Bulls by his Subjects even of the Roman Communion and not only by the Civil Power but the Clergy also concurring therein who moreover gave him a fair opportunity and kind of invitation either by setting up a Patriarch in France V. Thu. l. 103. which had been very agreeable to the first flourishing state of the Church after the times of Persecution or by restoring to the Arch-Bishops and Bishops their ancient authority which was in some sort done and held for four years after to have cast of that Antichristian yoke of the Papal Usurpations under which he afterwards neglecting that opportunity unhappily enslaved himself and his Kingdom and so having reformed that grand abominable abuse he might with the more facility afterwards have established by the mature deliberation of a lawful Council such a Reformation of the Gallican Church as perhaps might not have been inferior to any which hath been made in other places And afterwards L. 107. when he resolved to be reconciled to the Church they admitted and absolved him notwithstanding the Pope's Legate opposed it all he could contending that he could not be absolved by any but the Pope But these things which might have given encouragement to a conscientious and truly pious mind to constancy and further dependance upon God to him perhaps proved a further tentation their fidelity to him making their perswasions to change his Religion the more prevalent with him especially concurring with a more powerful motive viz. the reducing of the rest of the Kingdom to his obedience And therefore though like David he waxed stronger and stronger and the League like the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker yet in about half the time that David was kept out of the greatest part of his Kingdom he began to yield to the tentation And first when the Leaguers through the incitations of the Pope and the King of Spain were about to assemble to choose a Catholick King though that was not unlikely to break their party by their emulations and divisions concerning the person forgetting his former resolutions and neglecting his conscience instead of dependance upon the Divine Providence he applies himself to humane Policies and resolves to change his Religion without staying for the determination of a lawful either General or National Council L. 107. And this after a few hours instruction whereby he pretended he was much informed of what he was ignorant before being solemnly done he next not long after by a * L. 107 108. special Embassador makes supplication to the Pope to be admitted to his favour And though he had presently hereupon two notable experiments by the attempts of Barriere and Chastel of the vanity and deceitfulness of such shifts and humane Policies without the favour of the Divine Protection and Blessing besides a faithful and sound admonition from the good Queen Elizabeth yet his confidence and reliance upon God being before weakned it commonly proving with perverted minds as with corrupted stomachs which turn their natural food and nourishment into the nourishment of their disease these did but provoke him to the more earnest pursuit of humane politick means and therefore again when he had already broken the party of the League L. 109. L. 10â— and Paris wherein their chief strength lay had submitted to him and besides all this the Pope had unworthily repulsed his Embassador and given him a just provocation which certainly he might have improved with the concurrence and good liking of the French Nobility and Clergy toward the reformation of that abominable abuse of the Papacy which is the original or prop of all the rest he was notwithstanding easily wrought upon at the slight intimation of the Pope who when he saw it was in vain longer to oppose him L. 113. was very willing to receive his submission to send another Embassie and basely prostrate himself to him basely I say because it is not likely that he did it out of Conscience or Religion but rather out of fear of Emissaries and Assassins which is * A percussoribus qui quotidie vitae ejus insidiantur metuentem expresly mentioned by his Agents to the Pope as a motive to his reconciliation and for the same reason 't is likely as hath been shewed before he at last notwithstanding all perswasions earnest intercessions and supplications to the contrary restored the Jesuites again and among other favours subjected the government of his conscience to them This was the foundation upon which he built his Greatness which having laid for his security he presently set himself to heap up Treasures and at last raised a great Army for the execution of some grand design which whatever it was in truth he pretended to be for the promotion of the Christian cause against the Infidels But alas all was built upon a sandy foundation he had forsaken the
others There are two factions in the Kingdom one of the Momorancies to whom the Colignies were formerly added but now upon the account of Religion by which they have engaged many to them they constitute a new faction The other is of the Guises nor will France ever be quiet or that Majesty that is taken from Kings by the Civil Wars thence arising ever be restored till the chief of their Heads who disturb the most flourishing Empire and the publick Peace be stricken off They by the troubles of the Kingdom have grown to so great Power that they cannot be taken away at the same time they are severally to be taken off and set one against the other that they may destroy one another Coligni must be begun with who only survives of his Family who being taken out of the way it would much weaken the Momorancies who lie under so great an odium upon the account of their joyning with Coligni But this is an unworthy thing and not to be suffered by you said they directing their discourse to the King that a man whom only Nobility commends one that is advanced to honour by the favour of Kings now grown burdensom to the Nobility equal to Princes in honour grievous to your self should come to that height of madness and boldness that he should count it a sport to mock at Royal Majesty and every day at his own lust to raise Wars in the Kingdom Certainly his madness is above all things by you if you be indeed King to be restrained that by his example all may learn to bear their fortunes decently and use them modestly Nor only shall the faction of the Momorances be broken by his death but the power of the Protestants shall be over-turned of which when he is the very heart and soul in him alone the Protestants seem to live and he being dead they will fall with him This is not only useful but necessary for setling the publick Peace when as experience doth shew that as one house cannot keep two Dogs nor one tree relieve two Parrots so one and the same Kingdom cannot bear two Religions This may be done without danger or blame if some cut-throat as there are enough of them to be had be suborned to take away the life of Coligni encouraged by some present reward and hopes of future who having done the thing may make his escape by the help of a light horse prepared for that purpose V. Dav. p 368 370 The opinion of Alberto Condi Coun. of Retz For then without doubt the Protestants who are very numerous in the City supposing it to be done by the Guises will presently as you know they are a furious sort of people take up Arms and setting upon the Guisians they shall easily be cut off by their greater numbers for the people of Paris are much addicted to them and perhaps the Momorances so hateful to the Parisians shall be involved in the same tumult But if the thing proceed not so far yet at least the blame of the fact from which you shall receive great advantage shall be translated from you upon the Guisians as bearing yet in memory the murder of their Father whom having destroyed their Rivals you shall soon reduce into good order This thing being done you shall forthwith be able to determine concerning the chief leaders of the Protestants whom you have in your power who no doubt will return to their old Religion and due allegiance to you when evil Counsellors shall be removed And when it was debated in the Queens Council among those that were to be trusted their discourse went further that not only the Momorances with Coligni should be taken off but that the Guisians should at some fit opportunity be slain as those whom the Queen ought in no wise to trust or spare being heretofore grievously and often offended by her For so the Counsellors ordered the matter if the Protestants should go about to revenge the death of Coligni they and the Momorances should in the conflict be oppressed by the people as being inferior in strength but not without great loss to the adversaries whom the King having drawn a great number of Souldiers which he had then at his command into the Louvre sitting as a spectator might at last set upon being broken and weakened by fighting and as though they had taken Arms without his command and by way of sedition might command them all to be slain together with the Nobles as taking this or that party for whiles they remained safe there would be no end of murmurs and complaints against the Queen whom the seditious cry out upon as a stranger and so fit to be removed from the Government of the Kingdom 10. These were their divers counsels according to the diversity of the persons but they all agreed in the executing of the matter The Duke of Guise being at last taken into the privity of the fact though otherwise he knew nothing of the other Counsels an Assasine was sought for and presently Morevell appears being as it seemed provided for that purpose who having formerly undertaken to do such a villany he fled into the Camp of the Protestants but being affrighted by the danger of it lest he should seem to have done nothing he treacherously slew Arthurus Valdraeus Moius Monsieur de Muy at the siege of Niort Dav. p. 376. and from that time often changing his lodgings he concealed himself in the house of the Guises in which Family he was brought up from a child An house was also pitched upon in the Cloyster of St. German Auxerrois as they call it the house of Peter Pila Villemur who had formerly been Tutor to the Duke of Guise himself by which Coligni returning home must needs pass Therefore upon the Friday Coligni having dispatched much business in the King's Council where Anjou was present and composed a difference between Antonius Marafinus Guerchius and Tiangius chief of the Nobility of the Burgundians forward men he attended upon the King to the next Tennis-Court from whence after a promise from the King the Duke of Guise and Teligny betaking himself homeward walking on foot by the house of Villemur going gently along and reading a Petition which was then by chance presented to him Morevel discharging a Musquet from a window that had a linen Curtain drawn before it he was shot with a brace of bullets whereof one struck off the fore-finger of his right-hand and the other wounded him more dangerously in his left-arm while Guerchius was upon his right-hand and Rochus Sorbaeus Prunaeus upon his left who as likewise all that were there were exceedingly astonished at what was done But he with a countenance not disturbed only shewed them the house whence the bullets came and presently commands Armanus Claromontius Pilius and Franciscus Movinius that they should go the King and in his name acquaint him with what was done then binding up his arm and leaning upon his
your self What he meant by these words was not understood by all 12. But when the King knew by d'Anville and Teligny his desire he in shew seemed not unwilling to come to him about the afternoon There came together with him the Queen-Mother with the Brethren Anjou and Alanson Cardinal Borbon Monpensser Nevers Cossaeus and Tavanius Villarius Meruvius Thoreus Momorancies Brethren Marshals Naucaeus and Radesianus These being let in the rest are by the King's command shut out except Teligny and a Gentleman of the Family who stood at the Chamber-door here it is published in writing that some secrets were discovered to the King by Coligny but others deny it and say that the discovery of this secret was purposely hindered by the Queen lest the King whose nature she began to distrust being mollified and perswaded by the word of Coligny should change his resolution That which was openly heard was this when Coligny gave the King thanks the King with a sad and troubled countenance did earnestly enquire of his state and did protest that what had happened to him was a very great grief to him The wound is thine said he but the pain is mine But I swear then according to his manner he swore I will so severely revenge this injury that the memory of it shall never be blotted out of the minds of men To this Coligny answered God is my witness before whose tribunal I now seem ready to stand that I have been all my life long most loyal and faithful to your Majesty and I always and with all my heaâ—â— desired that your Kingdom might be most flourishing and peaceable And yet I am not ignorant that there have been some who have called me Traytor and Rebel and a perturber of our Kingdom but I trust God will some time or other judg between me them before whom I am ready if it be his pleasure that I should at this time depart out of this life to give an account of my faith and observance towards you Moreover whereas I have been advanced by Henry your Father to many and great honours which your Majesty hath been pleased to confirm to me I cannot but according to that faith and love that I have for your affairs desire that you would not let slip so notable an opportunity of an happy enterprize especially now that the breach is already made and there are many tokens and pledges of your mind as to the Belgick Expedition so as if the matter now begun be relinquished it will be very dangerous to your Kingdom Is it not a most unworthy thing that an egg cannot be moved in your Privy Council but presently almost before it be turned a messenger runneth and reporteth it to the Duke of Alva Is it not a most base thing that 300 either Gentlemen or gallant soldiers taken in Jenlis his fight should by the command of Alva either be hanged or undergo some other kind of punishment which thing I do yet perceive to be here in the Court a matter of jesting and laughing A third thing which I did desire to discourse with your Majesty about is the contempt of the Pacificatory Edict offered by those that are in place of Jurisdiction who do in most grievous manner daily violate the faith that was given by you of which faith and oath even foreign Princes are witnesses But as I have often told your Majesty and the Queen-Mother I do not think there is any surer way of preserving peace and publick tranquility than by a religious and severe observance of the Edicts But they are so contemned that of late at Troyes there was an assault made upon the servants of the wife of the Prince of Conde and when as she according to the form of your Edict had chosen a certain Village called Insula in which our Religion should be exercised yet notwithstanding of late a certain man and a nurse and an infant that was brought to the holy font wâ—â—e slain upon the way whiles they were returning from a Sermon that was made in that place August 10th And this happened a little before the 4th Eid 6 til To this the King answered I esteem thee my Father as I have often assured thee for a valiant and faithful person and one that is most careful for my honour Lastly I look upon thee as one of the chiefest and most valiant Commanders of my Kingdom nor if I had any other opinion of thee would I have done what I have for thee As for the Edict which I lately issued out I have always wished and do wish that it may be most diligently observed And to that purpose I have taken care that some choice persons should be sent through the Provinces that may make this their business whom if thou doest suspect others shall be sent in their places for in discourse he had said he did suspect them who had condemned him to death and hanging and set a price of fifty thousand Aurei upon his head Then that he might break off this discourse he added I see my Father that you speak earnestly and that earnestness may hurt both you and your wounds I will take care of this affair and again swearing by the name of God I do assure you that I will most severely revenge this injury upon the Authors of it as if it were offered to my self Then he there is not need of any great search for the Author of the fact nor are the discoveries already made very doubtful But it is enough and upon that account in the most humble manner that I can I give your Majesty thanks that you are pleased graciously to promise me to do me right Then the King taking aside that Gentleman of the household that stood at the dore commanded him to shew him the bullet wherewith Coligny was wounded and which was taken out of the wound that he might look upon it It was a brazen one then he enquired of him first whether much bloud flowed out of the wound next whether Coligny did signify the grievous pains he felt by out-cries and complaints And having commended his constancy and the greatness of his mind he commanded that Gentleman that he should not depart from him These things passed for about the space of an hour in the Chamber of Coligny the King drawing out the time with wandring discourses and that he might put off the business of the Belgick War to the mention of which it is observed that he made no answer Among these discourses Radesianus spoke to a friend of Coligny's concerning the removing him into the Castle of the Louvre for his greater security if the people should tumultuate which thing the King himself did sometime repeat which almost all did interpret as an argument of the King's care of the health of Coligny But when the Physitians and chiefly Francis Mazilles the King 's chief Physitian answered there was danger if his body should be shaken in the carrying whiles his wounds were
Inventio crucis Holy rood day he said he came thither that day to find an end at length of all the crosses that he had born in this life that none were ignorant of the cause of his punishmentâ— that he had sinned against the King in concealing it that he was sorry for it and humbly begged the Kings Pardon that the Plot against the King and Kingdom was bloody and which if it had taken effect he should have detested with all his heart and that so horrid and inhumane a Fact should be attempted by Catholicks was that that grieved him more then his death Then he added many things in defence of Anne Vaux who was held in Prison and lay under great suspition upon his account Being accused that he had while Q. Eliz. was alive received certain Breves from Rome v. Proceedings Q 3. in which he and the Peers inclined to Popery were admonished that when that miserable Woman should happen to die they should admit of no Prince how nearly soever related in blood but such as should not only tolerate the Catholick Faith but by all means promote it he said he had burnt them the King being received for King And when he was again Examined upon the same things he referred Henry Montacute who asked him about it The Recorder of London to his Confessions subscribed by him Being taxed for sending Edmund Bainham to Rome not to return to the City before the Plot should take effect This he thus excused as if he had not sent him upon that account but that he might inform the Pope of the calamitous state of England and consult with him what course the Catholicks should take and therefore referred them again to his Confessions Then he kneeled down upon the Stage to his Prayers and looking about hither and thither did seem to be distressed for the loss of his life and to hope a Pardon would be brought him from the most merciful Prince Montacute admonished him that he should no longer think of life but if he knew of any Treachery against the King or Kingdom that he should as a dying man presently discover it for that it was now no time to Equivocate At which words Garnet being somewhat moved made answer that he knew the time did not admit of Equivocation that how far and when it is lawful to Equivocate he had otherwhere delivered his opinion that now he did not equivocate and that he knew nothing but what he had confessed Then he excused himself that he did at first dissemble before the Lords That he did so because he did not think they had had such testimony and proof against him till they did produce it which when they did produce he thought it as honourable for him to confess as it would have been at first to have accused himself He added many things to excuse Greenwell professing that unless he thought he were out of danger he would not have discovered the guilt of his dear Brother in this Conspiracy Then praying that the * He said also I exhort them all to take heed they enter not into any Treasons Rebellions or Insurrections against the King Catholicks in England might not fare the worse upon his account he crossed himself and after he had commended his Soul to God the Ladder being taken away he was hang'd to death In his behalf Andreas Eudaimon-Johannes a Cretian of the same Society wrote an †Against which Robert Abbot wrote his Antilogia edit Lond. 1613. 4. Apology in answer to Sir Edw. Cokes Book Intituled Actio in Proditores for so much the Title doth imply published four years after and approved by Claudius Aquaviva Provincial of the Society in which chiefly the Doctrine of Equivocation is defended and explained from Scripture Fathers Schoolmen and Thomists and the necessity and matter of the Seal of Secresie or Confession is debated and the chief heads of his Accusation are answered the Speech of the Earl of Northampton is refuted Moreover he doth endeavour to evince that Garnet never knew any thing of the Conspiracy but by the way of Confession and that he did always abhor the Treason Then some things are related of his Constancy at his Death which are not related in the History of it And as a conclusion of his Commentary there is the memorable Story of the Straw upon which the Effigies of the Dead was seen at which he saith his Adversaries were very much disturbed Whiles the Body was quartered by the Hangman some drops of blood fell upon the Straw that was there provided to light the fire John Wilkinson who was there present that he might gather some relique of the Body of Garnet carried home with him an Ear that was sprinkled with blood and deposited it with a Gentlewoman Hu. Griffith 's Wife who kept it with great veneration in a Christal-glass Afterward it was observed with great admiration that the Effigies of Garnet was plainly expressed in that blood Then with great Zeal was the fame of the Miracle spread abroad which others did presently elude by a contrary construction saying It ought to seem no wonder if a man brought up among Exiles in Flanders improved at Rome in Italy authorized to a Conspiracy in his own Countrey and breathing nothing but revenge did as long as he lived thirst after the blood of his Countreymen should when dead deserve to be pictured in blood So dangerous a thing it is in these corrupt times to say any thing for the honour of any man in those things which do exceed belief and the common course of Nature which may not presently be retorted to his disparagement This end had this Conspiracy the strangest that either our or former ages do make mention of for contrivance daringness or cruelty For it is often heard of and fame doth deliver it down to posterity that many Princes are cut off by Treachery many Common-wealths are attempted by the snares and falshood of their Enemies But no Countrey no Age ever bred such a Monster of Conspiracy as this wherein the King with the Queen the Parents with their whole Issue all the States of the Kingdom the whole Kingdom it self and in it innumerable Innocents should all be destinâ—d to one Destruction in one moment for a Sacrifice to the lust of a few enraged Minds But it was very well that that Monster which they themselves that bear the blame of it do both by word and writing every where detest being so long before conceived at home should be strangled in the birth before ever it see the light A little while after Isaac Casaubon when he went into England thinking of nothing less than to be engaged in this business upon occasion of another Apology sent to him and by him delivered to the King of Great Britain wrote an Elegant Epistle to Fronto Ducaeus in which he sheweth that Garnet knew otherwise then under the Seal of Confession of the Powder Conspiracy by his own Confession and Testimony written with his own hand and doth at large discuss the Doctrine of Equivocation as ensnaring and pernicious against the Arguments of Eudaimon-Johannes Against which not Ducaeus but Eudaimon-Johannes doth rail sufficiently FINIS